Machine for washing, cleaning, waxing, and polishing sheet material



' I 1,619,925 March 8 1927. J. FLOCKHART v MACHINE FOR WASHING, CLEANING, WAXING, AND POLISHING SHEET- MATERIAL Filed Dec. 8, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TOR.

a 2 QM, TORNE} JF/arkka I Mitch 8, 1927. 1,619,925

J. FLOCKHART MACHINE F OR WASHING, CLEANING, WAXING, AND POLISHING SHEET MATERIAL Filed Dec. 8, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

March 8,1927. 1,619,925

J. FLOCKHART MACHINE FOR WASHING, CLEANING, WAX-ING, AND POLISHING SHEET MATERIAL Filed Dec. 8, 1925 4 She ets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR March 8 1927. 1,619,925

J. FLOCKHART rmmms FOR WASI-IING, CLEANING, WAXING, AND POLISHING SHEET MATERIAL Filed Dec. 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Mar. 8, 1927.

un 'rsn starts JAMES rnooirnan'r, or sen rnn vcrsoo, CALIFORNIA.

LIACHINE FOR WASHING, CLEANING, VJAXING, AND POLISHING SHEET MATERIAL.

Application filed December a, 1925. Serial'No. 74,218.

This invention relates to a machine for washing, cleaning, and waxing and polishing sheet material of various kinds for the purpose of ornamenting the same for use as binding for books, coverings for boxes, covers for folders, and for any other purpose for which ornamented or embossed sheet materials can be used.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that it is common tovariously color roughened sheet material after which the colored surface is wet with a solvent of the color, the surface is then partly rubbed clean whereupon a wax filling is then rubbed into the rough partly cleaned surface followed by a rubbing to polish the surface.

The process just described is followed in preparing various kinds of sheet materials for use in making book covers and other ornamental goods, and has heretofore been carried out by hand in several steps. In the present invention, the materials to be treated are placed on an endless apron immediately after being colored, and the several operations are accomplished one after the other as the apron moves under the variout mechanisms.

Another object of the invention is to so support and depress the pressure pads as to effectively treat the several sheets without danger of injury.

Another object is to provide means to hold the cleaning cloths straight as the rubbing of the sheet material takes place.

Other objects of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings in which the same reference numeral is applied to the same portion throughout the several figures of the drawings and of which there may be modifications.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the complete machine,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the complete machine,

Figure 8 is a view in elevation of the ma chine looking at the feed end of the machine.

Figure 4c is a sectional view in end elevation of one of the rubbing apron carriages, on line H, v p

Figure 5 is a longitudinal sectional. view at the carriage shown in Figure 4:,

.Figure 6 is a transverse vertical section of the carriage for the final polishing, and

Figure 7 is a transverse section of the carriage for distributing the wax on the materials to be treated.

Figure 8 is a view of the driving gears for winding the apron showing the friction drive.

The movable parts of this machine are mounted upon a framev work, which consists of three sets of posts 1 to 4, 1' to 4', and 1 to 4 inclusive. These posts are connected by the transverse bars 5, 6, at each set of posts, and by three longitudinal bars 7, 8, 9 in alinement with the posts, extending longitudinally of theframe.

In addition to the foregoing frame members, there are three transverse frame members connecting the said posts under the.

end of the apron, as shown at 10, 11, and 12. The two stringers 7 on opposite sides of the frame, form a suport for an extended sheet metal table 15,ov'er which the enclless apron 16 passes. The endless apron 16 is carried by two rollers 17 and 18 on two shafts 19 and 20, the lower shaft 19 having a pulley 21 around which the belt 22 passes to drive the apron 16. The belt 22 also passes around a pulley 23 on the power shaft 24. The shafts 19 and 20 also carry sprocket wheels 25, 26, around which sprocket wheels a sprocket chain passes. This chain is supported at intervals, and there are a plurality of small heavy rollers 28 with sprocket wheels 29 on the ends of the shafts supporting them which engage the top of the chain 27, and the size of the sprockets carried thereby is sufficient that the rollers 28 will be driven at the same the belt 16. v

The object of the series of rollers 28, of which there are 16, is to hold the sheet material to be cleaned perfectly flat, and said rollers are journalled in a series of boxes 31 secured to the top of table 15, over which the apron 16 travels.

At intervals along the length of the apron there are eight pairs of standards 82, 33 each pair being substantially the same as each other pair, and having a pair of small rollers 34, 35 for the support of the several shafts 36 to 43 inclusive in addition, the first four pairs of standards carry the slid peripheral speed as able boxes and 46 at their upper edges to receive the six squared shafts 17 to 52 inclusive. These squared shafts are driven by the sprocket wheels 53 to 58 inclusive at a very slow rate by the sprocket chain 59 which also passes under a small sprocket wheel 60 on a shaft 61 which is driven from the worm 62 which engages the worm wheel 63.

The shafts 316 to -13 inclusive supportand reciprocate the cleaning. waxing, and polishing members which will be presently explained, and they are each driven by the several links 63 to inclusive from eight cranks on the longitudinally extending crank shaft 71 which is revolubly supported in the journal boxes 72 to 76 inclusive, supported on the two outer frame members 7. I The crank shaft 71 carries a bevel gear 77 which is in mesh with a bevel gear 78 on a vertical. shaft 79. This shaft is driven by a bevel gear 80 in mesh with an oppositely placed bevel gear 81 on the shaft 82, which shaft carries the driving pulley 83, around which the belt 84 passes on the pulley 85 of the motor 86; said motor being supported by the two adjacent frame members 9 and a flat supportingplate 88.

In order to reduce the speed of the belt 22 to the desired speed for feeding of the belt 16, the shaft 82 carries a small. gear 89 in mesh with a larger gear 90 on the shaft 91, and said shaft also carries a small gear 92 in mesh with a larger gear 93 on the shaft 24 which carries the pulley 23.

Returning now to the polishing apparatus, it will be seen that the supports for the polishing apparatus and the boxes in which the several rolls 28 are journaled and supported by a plurality of rods 93', each stand ard 32 and 33 being carried by four of such rods, while each of the journal boxes for the rollers 23 is carried by one of such rods. These rods are each provided with a pair of lock nuts, as indicated at 94 and 95. a threaded rod without the lock nuts being shown thereon at 96. lhese rods are then held resiliently in a given position by means of two spiral springs 97, 98, which are mounted on the supporting; floor 15, and the lower stringer member 8 of the set in alinement with the posts 33'-3". and similarly the opposite ends of the polishing members and rollers 28 is supported by springs between the floor 15 and stringer member 8 in alinement with the set of posts l-el'- l". It will thus be seen that the pressure with which the rollers 28 and the cleaning: and rubbing members to be presently described, bears upon the sheet material on the apron 16 is determined by the adjustment of the lock nuts 94, 95 with respect to the springs above and below them.

The cleaning. waxing and polishing bers are of three types. The cleaning memconnected to each menu here are simply supplied with a cloth from which the cleaning solution is dropped, and this cloth is reciprocated back and forth over the. materials to be cleaned.

The waxing member has its cloth run in Contact with a body of Wax following which there is another cleaning member, and after this there are two rubbing members Which polish the material treated. I

Describing first the washing and cleaning members of which there are four alike arranged under the solvent spray pipes to 113, which pipes are in turn connected by a pipe 114 at one end and by a pipe 115 at the other end. The pipes just described are supported by upright pipes 115 130113,

the pipe 115 leading to a suitable source of supply for the solvent to be sprayed through the pipes 110 to 113.

The cleaning frames are each mounted on one of the shafts 36 to 43, and consist of two end members 119, 120, carried on one of said shafts, the shaft 36 being illustrated in Figs. l and 5. These end members are other by a bottom plate 121 which is suitably secured to the lower edge of said end members, and a plate 122 is also bolted to said end members. The frame thus produced is secured on the shaft 36 in a fixed position by the two collars 123, 12 i, and said collars are held in place by the two taper pins 125, 126.

Revolubly supported on suitable bearings in the standards 32,- 33 is a shaft 47, which is slid-ably connected with the end members 119, 120, while it has a feather way to rotate the small gear 128, which gear is in mesh with two larger gears 129, .130 'on the shafts 131, 132, on which the cleaning cloth is wound.

It isd-esired to make all the gears 129 and 130 and all the shafts 131132 identical and interchangeable for the purpose of changing the cleaning cloths whenever necessary, a supply of such rolled up cloths being); kept on hand. 7 r

In order to do this all the gears 129. 130 on the machine are loosely mounted on their respective shafts and said shafts are rotated frictionally by tightening a spring washer 134 against the gear it is desired to drive by a screw 135 in each instance. In Figure 4% it will be seen thatthe shaft 132 winds the cloth up while the shaft 131 is unwinding, therefore the spring;- washer on the gear 130 will be screwed down as tightly as possible to cause the gear 130 to turn the shaft 132, while the washer on the gear 130 will not be screwed down so tightly and while the gear 129 will turn it will only resist the turning of the shaft 131 enough to keep the cloth tight.

In order to prevent the cloth 133 from becoming wrinkled there are two shafts 136, 137 loosely journalled in the end of frame members 119, 120 each of which shafts is provided with a series of sharp pointed star wheels 1238. These star wheels puncture the cloth and turn freely therewith, but they prevent any lateral movement or wrinkling of the cloth.

The opposite edges of the bottom 121 are turned up as shown in Figure 4- at 1-10, 1-11 and a piece of sheepskin 1 12 which has the wool cut off till it is only about thr-ee-eig'hths of one inch thick is then secured under the said bottom 121 with its edges turned up and over the edges 140, 1411 of said bottom plate. The edges of the sheepskin are then secured in placeby metal strips 143. 14 1 through which screws 145 pass into the up turned edges 140, 1411.

In order to give the sheepskin outside which the cloth 133 moves, a soft touch there are a plurality of round flat .headed pins 146 mounted in registering holes in the botsheepskin 142.

There are four of the cleaners just described as shown at A, B, C, and D, and it has been previously indicated how the cloths are slowly driven from thechain 59 to present clean surfaces to fresh work.

The waxer is made on a supporting frame just the same as. the first four cleaning frames A to D, but the cloth 150 is differently arranged, and a hopper 151 isprovided for the wax. The hopper 151 is mounted on two end members 152, 153 which members are secured on the u per edges of two of the end members 119, 120 by the bolts 15%, 155. This hopper has an elongated open bottom which is closed by a roller 156 and by the cloth 150 which extends over said roller and. on which the body of wax 157 is placed. The wax is soft, but requires a weight 158 to force it down into contact with the clot-h as it takes it away.

This cloth and the rollers as well as the sheepskin bottom are identical with the cleaner members.

At the discharge end of the machine there is a cloth polisher E, the same as the polishers A to D, but it does not receive any of the cleaning fluid, while at the end of the machine there are two sheepskin polishers F and G.

The polishers F and G are mounted on the shafts 42 and 43 in the same way the polishers A to D are mounted on their shafts, but the two end plates 160, 161, are not much higher than said shafts since no cloth is used with these polishers.

The two end plates 160, 161 are connected by a bottom plate 162 with upturned edges 163, 164 and a plate 162' trimmed sheepskin 165 is passed under said plate 162', and over the upturned plate edges to be secured thereto by the strips 166 and 167 with the cap screws 168, 169, several of the latter being used on each side.

This sheepskin is gently pushed down by the round headed pins 170, 171, the heads of which bear on the sheepskin and which pins 7 slide in holes in the members 162 and 162.

peripheral speed so that whenever sheet material is placed under the rollers it is gradually pushed under the polishers and finally is. held down by the rollers on the finishing side of each polisher.

It, will be understood by those skilled in this art, that this machine is particularly for use in. those arts where a roughened material, like leather, artificial leather, or roughened paper or some other material of that character is to be colored, and then have its color partially rubbed over the surface, waxed, and finally polished as it is delivered from the machine.

he machine receives the freshly colored sheets of material, and the drip of the solvent from the pipes 110 to 113 wet-s the cloth passing under .the several cleaners A to B enough so that they will take off most of the color on the high portions of the sheet leaving the color in the depressions of the sheet, at the same time the cloths are being wound up, and a fresh portion of the cloth is continually being presented to the fresh sheets.

During this time the little star wheels 136 will prevent the cloth from being wrinkled, and the pins 1% will cause a very gentle pressure to be applied to the sheepskin and sheets passing thereunder.

hen the sheets pass under the waxer they will receive a quantity of wax from the cloth which draws down some wax from the hopper 151, and the wax will be distributed evenly by reason of the lateral movement of the polisher. As soon as the sheet material passes out from under this polisher it will pass under the three polishers E, F, and G, and when discharged from the machine it is sufficiently polished and dried to be ready for use.

At all times a very gentle pressure is maintained upon the sheet material by the several small rollers and the polishers by reason of the springs which support the rollers and polishers of which springs only a few are shown in Figure 1.

What I claim is as follows, but modifications may be made in carrying out the invention shown in the drawings and in the n said apron, means to reciprocate the polshers over the apron, a cloth extending around each polisher, means to supply certain ot' the cloths with a cleaning fluid, a hopper for supplying one of the cloths with a Wax, and means to cause the cloth to travel to present a fresh surface to the materials being treated upon the endless apron.

2. A machine of the class described, comprising a frame, an endless apron thereln, a series of rollers presslng upon said endless apron, a plurality of polishers, means to reciprocate each polisher across the apron, means to supply certain of the polishers with cleaning fluid, means to supply another polisher with wax, moveable cloths on certain of the polishers, andmeans to shift the cloths during the operation of the machine to present fresh surfaces to the ma.- terials being treated. V

-8. A machine of the class described comprising aframe, an endless apron therein, a series of rollers bearing upon said endless apron, a series of polishers bearing upon said endless apron, means to reciprocate the polisher across the endless apron, and springs forrcsiliently holding the rollers and polishers in contact with said apron.

4. A machine for treating sheet materials comprising an endless apron, a series of rollers bearing upon said apron, a series of laterally moveable polisher carriers over said apron, and a series of springs for supporting the several carriers.

A machine for treating sheet materials, comprising an endless apron, aseries of polisher carriers laterally moveable over said apron, a series of springs for supporting the several polishers, a roll on each side of each-polisher bearing upon the apron, springs for the support of the several rolls, and means to operate the apron rolls and carriers simultaneously.

6. A machine of the class described, comprising an endless apron, a series of laterally moveable polisher carriers supported thereon, springs for the support of the several carriers, a cloth extending over each carrier, and means to intermittently move the cloth to present afresh surface to the materials being treated.

7. A machine of the class described, comprising an endless apron, several laterally moveable carriers, spring for the sup;- port of the carriers, a roll on each side of each carrier, springs for supporting said rolls, and means to move a cloth under each carrier.

8. A machine for treating sheet material, comprising an endless apron, a series of laterally move'able polishers over the apron, a cloth extending under the carrier, means whereby the cloth is supported upon a pair of rolls on the carrier, means to wind the cloth on one of said rolls and unwind it from the other roll, and a series of spur wheels projecting into the cloth to prevent it from being dislodged from its proper position from the friction of the cloth upon the materials being treated.

9. A machine for treating sheet material comprising an endless apron, a series of laterally moveable polishers over said apron, each provided with a cleaning cloth Xt'GIlCling thereunder, a pair of rolls supported by said carrier upon which the ends of the cleaning cloth are wound, and frictional means for causing the cloth to be Wound on one roller, and unwound from the other as the machine operates.

In testimonywhere'of I have hereunto set my hand this 28th day of Nov, A. D. 1925.

JAMES FLOCKHART. 

